Butterflies
by lizzieXmarieXyoukai
Summary: After the completion of the Shikon Jewel, Kagome returns to her time, in a universe where the Jewel never existed. With memories of both lives, she tackles both the mundane and extraordinary with her friend: Yusuke Urameshi. Future minor Yus/Kag/Kur
1. Chapter 1

Title: Butterflies

Title derived from the chaos theory: "It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world"

Summary: After Naraku is destroyed and the Jewel wished out of existence, Kagome wakes up in a world where her adventures have never happened. Equipped with memories of her alternate life, as well as this new one, she takes on the mundane as well as the extraordinary with her old friend from this schoolgirl reality: Yusuke Urameshi.

This was a request fic. I'm not so sure if I am going to make it into any length, but here's what I have.

The request was for a story in which Yusuke and Kagome, who knew each other in high school, meet up in college.

Without further ado, let's begin.

Chapter 1:

The college freshmen (1) left their first class and scattered to the four winds. They were still getting used to the fact that they were no longer the high school students that they once were and that they had a bit more time between classes than they did in previous years.

Darting between other students in the crowd was a girl who otherwise would not stand out. She was beautiful, yes, with silky black hair that reached the middle of her back and a face that was nicely tanned and blemish-free. But, in the crowd of all of the other students, she was merely another face, another body trying to get to class.

Her life had not always been so mundane. Two years before, she was out in the wilds of Feudal Japan, fighting demons with her mortal life on the line. She had worked tirelessly to rid the world of evil, only to do so and find herself thrust forward back into her original time.

It was strange: when she returned to her time period after the destruction of the evil mastermind Naraku, it was as if she had never left. She still retained the memories of her trips, while at the same time she had other memories. In these new ones, she went to school on her fifteenth birthday with a bruise where she had tripped into the side of the well (but was not pulled down into it.) She had gone to school, done rather well in math (calculus, she decided, was very easy when one has enough practice) and had many different friends.

One of these new friends from this time period was Yusuke Urameshi. He had, in this new reality, come over to the shrine one day when Kagome had just turned sixteen to ask her grandfather several questions about demonology. That reality's Kagome was very much disinterested with the conversation, yet very interested in the boy. He was a rather attractive boy, underneath all of the hair gel and bad attitude. After the conversation about that most loathsome topic-demons-Kagome approached the strange boy.

Their conversation was a strange mixture of Kagome's blatant and failed attempts at flirting with the boy and Yusuke's discomfort in dealing with her. He was still quite attached to his "girlfriend" Keiko, and he did not like the idea of other girls flirting with him. After the awkwardness subsided on both accounts, they discussed their friends and perspectives on life. More importantly, they discussed demons.

The topic of conversation that Kagome avoided the most was suddenly the most interesting topic she could imagine. Hearing Yusuke's stories, fictitious as she thought they were, opened up the door for her acceptance of them as a possible explanation of the unexplainable.

She did not know at that time that the stories were all true, that demons were real and dangerous and, more importantly, corporeal. That enlightenment was saved for a year later when the two realities of her life merged together after her completion of the Shikon Jewel: one of the innocent schoolgirl, one of the demon fighting miko.

Kagome shook her head to dispel the reverie and the dual memories for those two years of her life. From her fifteenth birthday until a month after her seventeenth birthday, she could piece together two identities which, thank goodness, were separate enough for her to balance the two in her mind well. However, after she was enlightened on that fateful day, her family and friends saw a major shift in her behavior. She was more confident than the Kagome they knew: more accepting of challenge and trusting of the rest of humanity. More importantly, she was more interested in the topics of demonology. Yusuke's stories from before had done nothing to make her interested in her grandfather's stories, but now she was very much interested in everything he had to say.

Thinking about Yusuke made her sigh once more. After their first meeting, they had become fast friends and called each other constantly. Then, one day about six months later he stopped calling and answering the phone. Kagome was not concerned with that, thinking that maybe he was out on some trip as he had done several times. She waited a few days and tried again and repeated this process for a month. When she started to panic, she checked the obituaries for his area, but saw nothing. Finally, after about three months, a woman answered on the other line. When Kagome asked about Yusuke, the lady (obviously drunk as a skunk) started to wail about how her son had left her without telling her where he was.

Kagome effectively declared him dead to her and moved on with her life. About a month before college started, however, she received a call from him. She felt like she wanted to punch him in the face for making her worry. He laughed at her, saying that he would come visit soon, after he got his college schedule worked out and reestablished ties to his other, closer to home, friends.

It was in her second class that morning that she noticed that he had enrolled in the same college, for they shared their English class (2) In the lecture hall, Kagome spotted the boy sitting in back, trying to look as intimidating as possible to avoid anyone sitting around him.

At first, Kagome did not recognize him. His trademark gelled hair was forgone in favor of leaving it messy and somewhat longer. His face was more developed and his happy-go-lucky look that Kagome had remembered had faded away into an almost harsh look that she was used to seeing on angry demons. In addition, there was something else that she was picking up from him. As he had disappeared before she had merged with her demon-hunting-priestess alter ego, she had never noticed just how much power was radiating off of him. It felt very human, yet very demon at the same time. Not like how Inuyasha felt to her, however. No, it was more he had powerful human spiritual power that had an undertone of demonic power that felt as though it could spring up and take control at any second. Was this the same Yusuke that she had known before? Surely even her weak, untrained schoolgirl self should have enough spiritual power to see through him and feel the discomfort of his presence.

She tried to ignore that feeling in the pit of her stomach as she approached her friend.

"Well, looky who's here!" Yusuke said with a grin as he saw his friend, "If I'da known that you were goin' ta school here, I prolly woulda stopped by earlier, you know? I woulda thought that you were doin' some classes online for some fancy-schmancy 'academy' in Kami-knows-where."

"It seems our time apart has had an impeccable effect on your speech patterns, I see," Kagome commented, faking a snobbish accent.

Yusuke howled in laughter, oblivious of the glares that he was receiving from the rest of the class and, more importantly, the professor.

Yusuke calmed down considerably and began speaking in his normal cadence, "It really is great to see you again. Wow, has it been that long since I've laid eyes on you?" he asked rhetorically, looking her up and down the same way a painter examines his almost-finished work. "Seriously, you grew from the ugly ducking into the beautiful duck."

"Don't you mean swan?" Kagome asked with a smile as she settled herself down in the desk.

"Nah, you'll never be quite a swan: that word is for those fake girls who try too hard to be pretty. Yours is natural. I hope," he commented as his eyes drifted over the front of her blouse. She glared and smacked him over the head.

"Class is starting, you idiot," she whispered loudly as the professor took his position at the front of the class.

"We'll finish this later, ducky," he said, smiling as he returned the insult. Kagome stuck out her tongue like a little girl and pretended to ignore him.

Yes, it was nice to have him back. But, where had he been all this time?

END CHAPTER

Wow, that actually came out, dare I say it, rather nicely.

I think the request was more for an AU, but I like this plan. Yes, the chapter is short, future ones will be longer. However, I am probably going to make this a 5-10 chapter story, so don't get your hopes up on something really grandeur.

Story notes:

(1): The US is one of the youngest-graduating-high-school-age countries. Most of the rest of the world begins college around 19-20 rather than 17-18 (case in point, my school's Korean and Turkish exchange students were all at least 19 at graduation, one that I know of was 20.)

(2) Yes, they are in Japan. Think of it as a foreign language. It is the only subject in which they would naturally be in the same level: Kagome is too studious in this reality to be in lower level maths or sciences or histories (remember, she had two years after she was enlightened in her past), and Yusuke didn't really go to much high school. He was too busy dealing with (insert spoiler here. Three King's Saga is incorporated in the story for those dying to know.. It's rather obvious) stuff and got into college by. well it'll be explained when they talk.

Notes intended for explanation. contains spoilers and are not needed to understand story (hopefully). I accidently published them on the initial release and decided to keep them because they explain the duality concept well. So, don't be suprised if you don't understand all my shorthand:

* * *

Koenma is the evilest character ever that I like to use. Ref. EPL, TTMS, and now this. Yusuke's status of detective, though stopped shortly during his lordship/demon learning experience, still is active. As a now-adult member of society, it is very important that Yusuke knows how to act in human society and play by their rules. Thus, as a refresher from his demon-days, Koenma decided to send him off to college (where he could socialize with people his own age and not have to worry about people seeing him as extraordinarily different. He is taking a basic course load, funds provided by SW. The admissions and administration people are aware, to a point of his presence in school (just that Koenma wants him there and who Koenma is).

His grades are not of concern, for as long as he behaves, he will still receive an honorary degree and will not be kicked out. However, for simplicity's sake, it is easier for him to pretend to study and do well on tests than to fail everything and have people discover his situation. He has unlimited ability to miss class, though he still needs to show up when he is not busy.

As for Kagome, she identifies herself with both egos. However, her behavioral patterns are much closer to those of the feudal Kagome. This is for several reasons:

1. That Kagome is more popularly known and is thus easier to write

2. The modern Kagome is, for lack of better description, inexperienced. Feudal

Kagome's mix with modern Kagome did not diminish her feudal experiences.

Remember, before she went to feudal Japan, she was innocent. This is the same thing, only with the time paradox aspect added.

Why did Kagome's life change so much after the jewel was destroyed?

The Jewel's power exists out of / in control of time. (Ref. time-travelling being possible in the first place.) Thus, when it was absorbed into Kikyo's remains, it went straight to her reincarnation: Kagome. However, the Jewel needed time in the past to be detached from Kikyo's influence, so it moved the time for arrival for fifty years later. This made several things possible that were not before:

1) it allowed the team to organize as it did

2) it prevented Inuyasha from being involved in war (Ref. Sesshoumaru discussing war with the panthers)

3) It allowed a mentor to be available (Kaede, who would have been of little help if they had taken Kagome back right after Kikyo's death.)

4) It prevented the villagers from killing Inuyasha

Once the Jewel was completely removed from this plane of existence, it no longer existed in the future (Ref. Noh mask. That shard was from the future, but notice they do not end up with a duplicate shard. That shows that there is only one jewel in any given reality.) Thus, Kagome no longer needed to go back in time to get rid of the jewel. But, since she did not go back in time, then the jewel still did exist, meaning that she had to go back, only to not go back..

Confusing, yes. Basically, there are two realities, as stated before: one where she does go back, one where she does not go back. During the time where this duality is an active force in her life, she can only experience one. But, after the fact (as both realities have the same end: her at home with her family, going to school, taking classes, and being with friends) she is able to draw on the memories of both incidents.

Because the jewel's power drew her back in time, only she is attached to it. The only other person who can say that would have been Inuyasha discussing the future. However, his duality works differently.

He would have been attached to the tree the whole time had Kagome not saved him.

Thus, he had no memories of then. After Kagome would have destroyed the jewel, if we work on a timeline, then Inuyasha was released. While he retained the memories of what he had done with Kagome, he woke up in a different reality, leading him to suspect that he had in fact been dreaming the whole time.

In this story, he lived a hard life after that, being without friends (never met them) and eventually died in the hands of his brother (who got the sword and retained both hands.)

For Sesshoumaru, the Tetsusaiga was worthless, though he still tried to use it.

He eventually migrated to Demon World and retained his status as Lord. After several wars, though, he relinquished his power to the mighty Raizen and lived in a mansion.


	2. Chapter 2

I had two chapters ready, so here's the next one. The next update won't be for another week (and I still need to update Trip To Mutant School )

Chapter 2:

Both Yusuke and Kagome had only morning classes that day, so they decided to meet up for a late lunch. Kagome, who was very familiar with the area, knew of a nice Italian restaurant that was within the price range of college students.

As the two sat down in the booth, Kagome started the conversation.

"So, where were you?" she asked, "I mean, I called you over and over again and could not get you."

Yusuke looked sheepish as he tried to conjure up a story to tell her.

Who was he kidding? Kagome glared at him and added that he had better tell the truth lest she make sure that he would never ever tell a lie again.

Yusuke sighed. "Kags, look, I wish I could tell ya and all, but I'm not sure that you'd believe anything that I would say. It's probably just better if, you know, we forget it EVER happened and move on with life." Yusuke tried to smile and get her to accept the answer, but she was unmoved.

"Geez, Ducky, you've changed loads since I last saw you. The old Kagome woulda just laughed with me," he said, muttering the last bit more to himself than to her.

"First of all, I'm not a duck," she pointed out, "And second, I'm not the same Kagome, just like you are obviously not the same Yusuke. The old Yusuke would tell me about what is on his mind rather than pussy-foot around the topic." She looked at Yusuke in the eye and he gulped in fear of her. She sighed and softened her expression, "Look, I don't care where you were, but. I was worried about you, ok? I didn't know if you were dead in a ditch somewhere or coming back in a matter of days. Just don't do that to me again."

Yusuke really did feel bad about what he did, but he had to ask, "So, does that mean you'll stop grillin' me about that?"

Kagome smiled quickly and widely like the bird that ate the proverbial canary, "Nope. I still want details. Now, preferably, but I can wait a few minutes if you need to think."

Yusuke took a deep breath (1) "I found out about some distant relative that was dying. He decided that I would make a good heir for him, so I spent a great deal of that time dealing with his estate and establishing myself around his advisors and such after he finally kicked the bucket. 'Turns out that he was super-rich and powerful and had a bunch of enemies, so I had ta deal with that type of stuff as well. I got tired of it all, left it in the hands of the advisors, and decided to go to college."

Kagome looked at him a little confused. "But, if that's it, then why are you so concerned about me knowing?"

Yusuke thought about that for a second then grinned widely, "Oh, you know how my stories always end: some evil demon trying to take over the world and enslave humanity. I didn't wanna worry you with all the gory details. 'Sides, it's really not all that interesting: most of it was reading paperwork and dodging political enemies. Well, I'll tell ya, I ain't takin' a job in politics-ever. I woulda rather died than have to go through all of that all over again.

"So, enough about me, tell me what's happened in the world of Kagome Higurashi the Duck since I left."

Kagome became a little nervous about her response. On the one hand, she could tell him the truth as he had done her. Or, she could tell him the truth according to just this Jewel-free reality. That wouldn't be lying, would it?

"Oh, you know how things are: I go to school, I study, I sleep, I eat, I repeat."

"No showers?" Yusuke joked.

"Baths, and I sleep in them," she shot back with the sound of victory. She started to stir her drink nervously with her straw, "Soooo, anything else that I should know about in your life?" she asked.

"Uh-uh-uh," he said with the wagging of his finger, "I gave you more details than you did. Now, sing, my little ducky-bird."

"Ducks don't sing," she muttered then added, "and I am NOT a ducky!" She reached over the table to hit him, only to forget to reign in her spiritual powers in her anger. The result was a small explosion of light (which thank goodness went unnoticed by the rest of the restaurant patrons) that left a slightly toasted burn on the side of the boy's face.

"Ow," he stated as he rubbed his raw flesh. He looked at her with wide eyes as he realized exactly what had happened. "You forgot to tell me that you were training your spiritual power."

Kagome had her turn to look sheepish. "It never came up?" she stated, rather questioned.

The spirit detective was exasperated, "That's the type of thing that I was asking about how things have changed. I coulda cared less about you studying: we all know you did that."

"It's not that big a deal. I mean, I DO live in a shrine, incase you have forgotten."

"Well, yea, but that doesn't mean that you necessarily study that type of stuff. What happened to my little Kagome who hated hearing about demons and legends and stuff? I didn't think I had that much of an effect on you."

Kagome looked down in thought. Should she tell him? Perhaps that would ease the burden of the avoidance of the hard topics. Deciding that since he DID have a reaction to her purification powers, she would tell him.

"I am not the same Kagome you knew," she stated.

"Pfft, of course not, that's what I'm tryin' to say."

"No, I mean, I'm the compilation of two different Kagomes from two different realities."

Yusuke was speechless. His normal sarcastic remark of "what's a compilation?" was left unsaid as he tried to wrap his mind around it.

Taking his silence as something bad, Kagome decided to keep her silence and just read his expression. He was in many ways very much surprised-looking. In other ways, however, he was just merely confused, like if she had handed him a jigsaw puzzle that was obviously missing many pieces and expected him to put it together. Actually, that was exactly the situation, minus the physical nature of the puzzle.

"Wait," Yusuke asked, "So, this 'other Kagome' was some sort of demon-believing super-woman and you have her memories and abilities?"

"Basically," she squeaked out, and then added quickly, "So, you see, not much has happened in the way of 'me' in this reality. But so much has happened in the case of what I thought happened. From the time I was fifteen until a little after I turned seventeen, I have two sets of memories: one of me and one of. Well, me under different circumstances."

"But you're still you, right?" he asked, "I mean, you are not completely different, just with two more year's experience in life than the ordinary person. Well, if we are being completely honest, I guess I have to make a confession myself: I am not the same guy you used to know either. Actually, I wasn't even the guy you knew."

Kagome looked up at him with a questioning glance before he continued.

"You remember those stories I would tell about demon hunters?" At her nod, he added, "Well, the hunter I was talking about actually is a Spirit Detective… and by that I mean me."

Kagome, had she been a normal girl, probably should have looked at him as though he had sprouted another head or randomly turned purple. But, instead she just stayed quiet and let him continue.

He grazed over most of the details of his life, such as the fact that he died once and worked for Koenma, that he had taken part in a few tournaments, and that the ancestor he found out about with Lord Raizon of Demon World.

But, in all he did not give her many details, considering the fact the Kagome was reticent about her own demon-fighting lifestyle. While he was curious about that, he did not want to push her into revealing anything that she was uncomfortable with.

After the confessions, the two decided to move onto "more important" topics, like how Kagome's mom was doing (as asked by Yusuke) or who these "closer to home" friends that he had mentioned on the phone were and how they were doing.

After the two were completely stuffed with wonderful authentic Italian pizza (and not the super-greasy American substitute that people are so quick to order), they went their separate ways, promising to see each other again soon.

Kagome flopped onto her bed as she entered her room. She had opted to stay at home, for the school was close to her house. It had been such a tiring day: beginning college and all. Also, the very mention of demons caused her to become very homesick for the feudal era.

She would never admit it out loud, but she had always felt more at home there than she had ever felt in the modern world. Something was just natural about it: how people relied more on their own abilities and ingenuity to survive rather than on machines, how people were more aware of what was going on around them, how the only things that were important to know were those things that were actually useful (who in the Feudal Era really cared about the structure of an atom or the eating habits of a rhinoceros?).

Life then was simple. She did not have to hide who she was, feeling no amount of shame for acting outside of cultural norms. She had been perfectly fine with being the "freak" who ran around in "provocative" clothing. However, once she returned to her own era, somehow that bravado disappeared, leaving her very much afraid of what others thought of her.

Even when it came to her friend, who would understand everything that she had gone through, she was hesitant to say anything more than the fact that she had an alter ego who fought demons. Big deal. That did not give the full explanation. No, she was more than just a demon-fighting priestess. She was THE guardian of the SHIKON-freaking JEWEL.

Why was that so hard to communicate? Surely if anyone in this reality would understand her, it would be the Spirit Detective.

She decided to stop thinking about the Jewel and instead take an early nap before starting to tackle her pile of homework.

Meanwhile, Yusuke was stopped from returning to his dorm room by a floating blue-haired pilot of the River Styx. He groaned at the implication that he was needed in Spirit World.

"Yea, yea, Botan. Just take me to Koenma, since I know that's what ya want," he muttered.

"What? I'm not allowed to make social visits?" she huffed as she maneuvered herself on her oar to make room for the detective.

"You could… but you don't," he pointed out as the pair took to the skies.

After their arrival in the next dimension, Yusuke decided he needed to lighten the mood, "So, I've always wondered. Why is it that whenever you go to Spirit World, you fly up, but to Demon World you just open a portal? I mean, astronauts don't fly into Spirit World when they go up into space, so… how does that work?"

Botan just shrugged her shoulders, "My oar has a permanent connection to Spirit World, so I can enter when I want… I just like the theatrics of flying up!" she grinned at him as he sweatdropped.

"Forget I asked," he mumbled as they walked through the large double doors of the Spirit World headquarters.

His bad mood at being dragged from his life was worsened when he saw his boss. "Sooo, baby-breath, whazzup?" he asked with no enthusiasm.

Koenma glared, not even bothering to acknowledge the insult with a response. Instead, he opted to go straight into the problem.

"Our intelligence has noted that you revealed the existence of the Demon World to one Kagome Higurashi. While normally this would be of little issue, we have reason to believe that she is a part of a massive scale attack on Spirit World records."

"Kagome?!" Yusuke asked incredulously, "Why would she do that? I mean, she barely believes that demons exist: the only reason she does is 'cause she has this weird alter ego thing that…" Yusuke trailed off when he realized that must have something to do with the whole problem.

"An alter-ego?" Koenma asked.

"Yea, she said she merged with her "other self" who was a demon hunting priestess. I didn't wanna push her into telling me about it or anything. 'Sides, it sounded like she just had the memories and a little bit of power, nothing major."

Koenma refrained from yelling at the detective who obviously did not ask any questions about the girl's story when she told him about it. "Yusuke, listen to me. We have been looking into this girl for two years now. It is as if we have two conflicting records on her for those two years before that. On the one hand, we have records that show a very large power source that would make even you cringe in fear. On the other, we have a regular human girl who has no extraordinary power.

"We have only the explanation that she has been hiding the truth of her double-lifestyle by splitting her personality, in order to prevent her secrets from leaking, then…"

Yusuke cut him off of his very strange theory, "Look that just sounds crazy. She didn't go into any detail on her whereabouts or about what exactly she meant that she combined with her alter ego, but that doesn't mean that she is some dangerous psycho freak that is doing anything wrong. I know this girl, ok? She's just about as dangerous as a fly: a regular, human-world housefly."

"I want to believe your opinion on the topic, Yusuke, but I need to ask you to keep out an eye on her: see what she knows and what she has been up to."

Yusuke scowled and stormed out of the room, invisible and incorporeal thunderclouds seeming to follow behind his bad attitude.

Before he disappeared through the doorway, he yelled "I will NOT spy on my friends!" he then shut the door in a clap of thunder that resounded around the office.

Koenma cradled his head in his hands at the reaction of his detective. For one so strong and skeptical of everything, he chose the stupidest things to accept full-heartedly.

The fact of the matter was that the records on Kagome were somehow tampered with, and it was imperative that he knew why, before she, or whoever was doing this, changed everything that Spirit World knew about everything.

As his headache started to dissipate a few minutes later, he was interrupted by the opening of his office door.

"Lord Koenma?" asked the maroon-colored demon with horns, "We think you need to see this…" he said as he showed his boss the records, "We were looking through the archives to see if there were any earlier occurrences of what is happening with that Kagome girl… and we think we found something. A similar thing happened without our notice five hundred years ago, though on a much larger scale. Some of our records say of this very powerful demon that was concerned with world destruction and almost got it… later ones say that he was weak and easily disposed of by Former Lord Sesshoumaru for no apparent reason."

"Go find this lord: I want to talk with him," Koenma ordered. After the ogre left the room, he rubbed his temples and wished that is job was not so difficult.

"Spy on her, my ass. I'd rather stab out my eye with a pitchfork… How the hell was he expecting me to do this, anyway? Walk up to her all friendly and ask her to go into all the gory details of her demon-hunting days… Yes, that would definitely make her want to open up to me…"he muttered to himself the next day as he headed to his first class. The two had examined their schedules the day before and say that they only had English together on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. So, he had no reason to see her that day unless he actively sought her out.

And trying to get with her just for that seemed like a worthless attempt at spying on her. If she was as different as he suspected she was, she was not going to easily go into full details of those two years of her life, especially after his (retrospectively stupid) comment that he didn't care what she had done before.

Since she had no reason to prove herself to him, then why would she willingly open herself up to that?

Class was, as usual, quite boring. He originally had no plans on ever going to college, but since he spent almost three years in a demon dimension, he and Koenma agreed that the best way to reacquaint himself with human society and culture was to hang out with people his own age. That left him with two options: join the working world in a fast food restaurant (which would be problematic for him and his extended trips away for his Spirit World work and Demon World responsibilities) or to take classes in college.

Koenma was able to pull lots of strings and favors to get him into school without much of a high school record. The principal of his college had married a former employee of Spirit World, so he was more than happy to do his share for the detective. The admissions people were on a need-to-know basis to keep their suspicions from being made public. As for professors, Yusuke's likable personality was able to keep him from getting into too much trouble.

Besides, unlike in high school, the college professors did not really care about whether or not their students passed: they were there to teach and didn't care if the students really absorbed it or anything. Their paycheck was based on more than just their ability to hold the attention of the class.

Anyway, so Yusuke had no real attachments to his classes, other than as a cover and a way to be a part of society without the responsibilities of such. If he wasn't completely bored, he probably would have just skipped. But, since he had nothing better to do, he took a seat in his history class and tried not to fall asleep.

While Yusuke was trying to pay attention in his history class, Koenma was busy trying to organize his thoughts for the arrival of Lord Sesshoumaru. Though he no longer held any land, having given it all to Lord Raizon in a strange, unexplained and otherwise politically debilitating move, he was still quite the force to be reckoned with.

His uncaring attitude was almost infamous. Rumor had it that he had watched his own mother die before his eyes and the only emotion he showed was annoyance at how she "dared" to do so in his sight: she should have crawled off in a hole and died the type of death she deserved. Of course, those rumors were unfounded (he wasn't even present at her death), but they defined much of how he was viewed.

Koenma felt the air around him drop several degrees as the Daiyoukai entered the room (2). Sesshoumaru was over a millennia old, yet looked the same as he had as far back as half a millennia before. His long silver hair was like a trailing cape, making him look that much larger and intimidating. His height did little to help that fact.

"Why has this Sesshoumaru been summoned here?" he inquired monotone, "I have had no dealings with your world in the past and would have liked for it to remain that way."

Koenma gulped and looked everywhere around the room than at the obviously angry demon. "Well, you see, we have this little problem with some records that don't match up… and your name appeared there, so we decided you could be a useful point of contact for this stuff and we just need to ask you a few questions before we can just let you go back on your merry way… hehe" he let out a nervous laugh after trying to give his whole explanation in one breath.

"And somehow you and yours are responsible for protecting the human world. Pathetic," the lord stated as he looked down on the pacifier-sucking toddler-esque demi-god. "Would it perhaps be easier for you to address me if you were in your true form?" he asked, referencing Koenma's rarely used teenage form.

Seconds later, Koenma continued speaking, this time looking more mature. "We have records that go back 500 years that are contradictory. One of them that we found was of a Naraku: some records call him this very powerful demon who could have destroyed the world. Others completely ignore him or say he was weak. No one here, even those who should remember him if he was so powerful, remembers him. We figured that since you killed him and all that you would be able to provide some insight into this," Koenma explained, much calmer than he was before.

Sesshoumaru looked surprised. Well, as surprised as a stoic demon like himself could. "I was beginning to wonder when people would notice that," he said with a very small smile beginning to form at the corners of his lips, "Tell me, what you know of the Shikon no Tama?"

"The what?" Koenma asked, very much confused by the turn of the conversation.

"Do not interrupt me. Five-hundred and fifty years ago, a priestess named Kikyou died and had the jewel, which was powerful burned with her body. Fifty years later, it reappeared and became the object of attention for many people and demons. After it was destroyed, the priestess that had returned it to that time—she was from the future—disappeared and only my brother, who had a connection with her, still had the memories of what happened.

"Of course, his memories were not much proof of what happened. He had been stuck to a tree before that and was taken down by the future priestess. Thus, in the new sets of memories made after the completion of the jewel, he had just blackness. He had access to my father's favorite sword, so I hired a priest to remove him from the tree so I could get to it.

"When he was conscious, he began to spout off all sorts of nonsense. I thought he had just been dreaming and ignored it all. I managed to get the sword from my father's tomb, though it was quite useless to me as it burned me. In spite for my brother, I killed him with it, nearly ruining my hand on the handle.

"When his heart stopped beating, it was as if all of the strange dreams that he had came rushing into me. Combining with those from his perspective were those from my own: of what I had done in this other reality. I am unsure how this all works, and I have spent a while researching it, but I do know that those other memories are things that really happened. I have a theory that the connection between the swords of my father have allowed me to see what had happened to the two of us, as if they had held the memories safely until there was a need for them.

"I am assuming that since you are asking about this now that the girl from the future who was responsible for all of this has appeared on your radar, am I correct?" Koenma nodded dumbly as he tried to wrap his head around the whole thing.

"I have no further reason to be here," Sesshoumaru stated as he walked out the door without a further glance.

Koenma didn't even try to stop him.

END CHAPTER

Very long chapter, especially for me. But, seriously an extra two pages of notes after this chapter that you won't see. A lot of it is in Sesshoumaru's explanation, just more in depth, with some supporting evidence. This chapter ended a whole lot differently than I planned originally. I was going to have

Yusuke get the info from Kagome, but decided that she would not be so talkative. Instead, I needed a past character who knew all of this. I did not want to use Inuyasha (for the reason that he was kinda half-dead when he was on the tree and no one would believe him about Naraku even if he did try to explain it to someone.) I needed someone who would have two sets of memories and still had a connection to Kagome.

Here is an excerpt (large one, but cut down with … where unneeded info is mentioned) from my personal notes that sums it up well:

…he had taken Tetsusaiga and had Tenseiga. …the swords, being of mystical nature, created by his Father's fangs, would be less-than-touched by the time paradox. Thus, as Inuyasha and his sword had a very close relationship with Kagome (and more importantly, the well and the Goshinkbo, leading to a relationship with the jewel itself), those memories of the other reality were freed from Inuyasha's form after he passed and went into his sword [as if they were one being].

The swords were connected [to each other, as well]. Since the Tetsusaiga (master less) had no use of the memories, it passed them onto the Tenseiga, which in turn passed them onto Sesshoumaru.

It wasn't just the memories that were passed. In addition, it unlocked the door to the "memories" of Sesshoumaru's part in it all, as well. Thus, he could remember things form Inuyasha and himself during that time.

These haunting memories (remember, in that time period he watched over Rin, who he was no longer responsible for and was dead in the now-reality) caused him to seclude himself from humanity. When the opportunity came up for him to remove himself fully from them and migrate to Demon World, he took it without hesitation.

Once there, he was quick to reestablish himself as the ruthless leader that he was known as. However, he quickly tired of this (who was he kidding: he had memories of feeling love for someone as if they were his own daughter) and handed power over to Raizon. This transfer of power had several reasons:

1. Raizon had a human lover. Thus, Sesshoumaru felt a sort of attachment to him and his ideals.

2. Raizon was more powerful than the other lords (thus would not cause them to be split up), which was good for the people.

3. Sesshoumaru would rather answer to him than to the other, more demanding lords. He was essentially left alone, only going to the odd social gathering when requested.

Also, to explain the records in Spirit World:

Spirit World documents have both sets of data for a reason: they exist outside of the reality of the human world. The Jewel did not apply to them. However, to the living beings there, it did have power. This is confusing, yes, but basically the point is that the only ones with the keys to the memories are Kagome and Sesshoumaru, but the stuff that was written down outside of the human world have no "memory locks" on them and were not changed by the Jewel. The discrepancies were not found until after the merger because, well, before then, there was only the one reality (whether in a Jewel-free world of a Jeweled-world.)

That's all the notes I'm posting for this one. I also had a list of 9 things that I was going to avoid in this story, but I think that would be a bit much :D Anyway, happy reading and reviewing.

(1) Geez, how many times did I make those two sigh in that first scene? Wow.

*counts* 3

(2) I recently learned that it is improper to call him "Taiyoukai" as that means fish demon. "Daiyoukai" means large/powerful demon. I have some serious edits to do on some other stories.


	3. Chapter 3

Working on the speed of my updates, but it all depends on what I'm doing at work (as an intern, I have lots of free time one day and none the next). I'm trying to plan where I'm going with this, so there are a lot of allusions to things to come in this chapter.

Tell me about spelling and punctuation mistakes: I've proofread this like five times, but I'm sure there are still some stuff. Some weird formatting caused a strange A with a tilde over it to appear before all quotes, elipses, and apostrophes, and some of those added extra commas around them. I fixed all of the A's (did a "replace" and replaced them with nothing) but am paranoid that I've looked at it one too many times to catch all of the other mistakes. The original copy of this fic was done without the aid of a spellcheck.

AND HERE WE GO ON WITH THE NEW CHAPTER

Chapter 3

Koenma sat in confusion after the Demon Lord exited the office. Should he perhaps contact Yusuke and tell him of the new developments? More pressing, what are the new developments? So, there was some Jewel--the Shikon no Tama-- and it existed, except that it did not, and this Kagome Higurashi was somehow responsible for that.

Yet, somehow, this did not satiate the Demi-God's hunger for the truth. Did this mean that the girl was harmless as a newborn kitten and the information problems were all an unfortunate side-effect of the strange time paradox that engulfed her very being? Probably not.

Koenma stood up from his chair and declared loudly for all of the non-existent people in his office to hear, "No, I will not allow this little girl fall through the cracks of our investigation services: if she truly is no threat, we would be able to find that out after looking into her."

He sat down again and began his plans to set up tests for her. His first order of business was to contact Yusuke and demand (again) that he keep a close eye on her behavior. Now, if only he could get that detective to listen to his demands rather than to shirk his responsibilities‚…

------

Meanwhile, Yusuke ducked behind a trashcan to prevent his friend from spotting him. It was not that he disliked her or anything – he thought she was awesome – or that he would be totally unable to hide his mission, but he was just afraid that the strange things that happen around Spirit World workers (like, let's say, Botan randomly appearing on an oar and requesting that he go off to Koenma's office) would happen during their conversation, and that could cause some strange questions to come up.

However, someone "up there" did not like him, for as he crouched in the corner as part of his covert mission of not being seen, two things happened simultaneously. First of all, the students in a nearby food court decided to choose that receptacle to toss away their lunch garbage. None in the group had the makings of basketball players and the Spirit Detective was pelted with half-full milkshakes, balls of aluminum foil, and a half eaten apple. Secondly, Botan decided then was the perfect time to contact him through his communication mirror.

The ringing alerted the lunch group that someone was there. The leader got closer and looked at him questioningly "Dude, what're ya doing behin' da trashcan? 're ya one a' those dumpsta' divers peoples that gets dey'r kicks outta eatin' half-eatin' food to save da world or summin strange like dat? Dat's disgustin', man..."(1) His words caused the rest of the posse to laugh and point. Yusuke just muttered under his breath some curse in a demon-tongue, brushed off what he could, stood and walked away ignoring the group. Humans could be such rude creatures sometimes. Why did he work so hard to save them all of the time?

The only good that came from the incident was that Kagome was well out of sight when Yusuke crawled out of his hiding place and faced the world with rivers of strawberry milkshake flowing down his face. However, the incident also meant that he had to go to his dorm room and change clothes, which would make him late for his next class.

Skipping was healthy sometimes, right? Now he could get caught up on the newest video games at the arcade. Surely with his decreased reflex time, he could easily get high scores on every game there...

-------

While Yusuke disappeared from campus, Kagome sighed in relief. She had sensed Yusuke hiding behind that trashcan, which made her wonder exactly what that boy was up to. It took very little effort for her to use her priestess powers to cause the people in the group to trip a bit as they threw out their garbage, so that they would hit him in the head. She knew that using her abilities for things so selfish could cause her to go down the path of evil, but she felt that the boy deserved it. It was no difficulty: while she had no power of telekinesis or anything, the mere strength of her spiritual powers could offset a person if it was concentrated towards them. The hardest part of the operation was hiding the aura from the target.

Whatever happened to his declaration that nothing mattered to him about her former life? Why was he, now that he had seen her, hiding as if from dear life? Were his previous words a lie? Did he, now that he thought about it, regret the words that he had said and want to know more about her? Couldn't he just ask her if that were the case? She didn't bite, most of the time (there was that one time when she was kidnapped for the 49th time in the Feudal Era where she tried to escape from her capturer by biting him).

She shook her head at his antics and walked to her next class. If he wanted to avoid her like that, he would just have to face the wrath of a woman. He should make a miraculous turn-around quite soon, guaranteed.

-------

A machine beeped and whirred as red and green neon lights indicated that Yusuke had once again achieved a high score. He smirked as he entered his name again, successfully filling the entire list with his 'signature' "The Demon King".

He yawned: now that he had filled three of the games at the arcade completely with his high scores, there really wasn't much to do. A glance at the clock and a loud growl from his stomach told him that it was time to eat, so he sauntered out of the arcade and towards a more traditional restaurant that he had seen on his walk from campus. Sometimes having access to all of the money of his inheritance was helpful: it allowed him to eat and do and play whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

The restaurant itself looked as though it had come right out of the Meiji Era (2) and was made of wood, rather than the metal of most of the other buildings in the area. Upon entrance, he was immediately greeted by an amiable waitress.

She bowed, "Table for one?" she asked politely.

Yusuke grinned and decided to mess around with the girl, "Yea, unless a' course the goddess before me decided to join me?" he suggested with what he could only hope was a sexy grin.

The waitress blushed and diverted her gaze to hide the progressive reddening of her cheeks. "Ano... I have to work, you see, and..."

"Don' worry 'bout it," Yusuke insisted, "Just lead the way to my table."

The waitress picked up a menu and led him into an adjoining room. Yusuke stopped for a second after he had quickly surveyed the room before announcing that he knew where to sit.

Kurama, otherwise known as Youko or the greatest thief ever in Demon World, was enjoying a cup of steaming green tea while waiting for his own food to appear.

"Dude, when'd you get in town?" Yusuke asked the redhead, completely ignoring the girl he had been flirting with not moments before.

"I just arrived, though I was sure that--the Boss--would have told you already," Kurama said plainly, not wanting to reveal Koenma's name in public (3).

Yusuke smiled and turned to the waitress, "I'll have whatever he ordered." She scrambled through her papers to find out what that was before disappearing into the kitchen.

"So, man, what're ya' doin' here, anyway?" Yusuke asked as he sat at the low table.

Kurama took one more sip of his tea before answering. "I assume you are working on the time paradox case?" At Yusuke's nod, he continued, "This restaurant supposedly does not exist, at least according to the alternate records. According to those, this building was a martial arts studio that was created centuries ago by a demon slayer and monk and was intended for their children and grandchildren to learn about demon hunting. However, in the now-reality, those two never met and instead her progeny -- the monk unfortunately died due to unknown circumstances -- were of noble status and in the Meiji Era they started this restaurant."

"Oook, I'm going to regret this, but what does that mean for me? I mean, it's just a restaurant: doesn't mean much..."

Kurama smirked a little, "While this portion to the case may seem labyrinthine and pointless, the differences between the two sets of records indicate that the monk and slayer were somehow related with the problem. They came into the picture quite early on in the dual records, and we are trying desperately to scrounge up more information. However, it seems that the writers of the time believed that complexity would make the problem go away. They seemed to obfuscate everything so that it is quite difficult to understand exactly what they were talking about."

Yusuke took a second to remember what "obfuscate" meant before replying, "So, do you think that if I approach... the girl supposedly responsible... with a conversation about these two, then maybe I'll be able to piece together some of this information you are supposedly lacking?"

"Yes, and no, Yusuke," Kurama reprimanded, "While the information would help, there is no proof that she would indeed know who these people are. It would perhaps be wise to wait for..."

Kurama cut himself off as the waitress reentered the room with a tray carrying green tea and two servings of beef stew (4). She asked if there was anything else they needed (Yusuke decided to flirt hopelessly with her again, saying something to the effect of "Only your beautiful presence to light up this dark world" which earned him a reply of "Oh, I'll go light some more lanterns, I hadn't realized how dark it had become outside so early!" before she scurried off).

Kurama chuckled with his mouth covered politely at the detective's antics before continuing where he left off, "As I was saying, it would be best to wait for Koenma and Spirit World Intelligence to find the souls of the slayer and monk in Spirit World. There is a theory that they might now be able to remember their other life (5) since they have passed on. However, finding them is proving to be convoluted, as the process for finding souls in Spirit World often proves to be."

Yusuke stared at Kurama before asking, "So, I'm not supposed to do anything for now except sit on my ass and wait for the Spirit World government to accomplish something? Don't make me laugh. I'll be grey and falling apart before they get anything done."

Kurama laughed goodheartedly at Yusuke's comment, "Of course," he added, "Koenma has already spoken with Lord Sesshoumaru…"

"Lord Sesshoumaru? What does that hermit have to do with all of this?" Yusuke asked, remembering the silver dog demon from the Makai. He had only come to one meeting in the entirety of Yusuke's stay in Makai and had made very little impression on him. He seemed aloof of everything going on around him and was among the first to leave the room after the meeting had adjounred. He had barely even acknowledged that Yusuke had taken over for his ancestor, whereas the rest of the court seemed to be unable to prevent that fact from coming to the forefront every other second.

Kurama opened his mouth to answer about Sesshoumaru's involvement but quickly shot up and drew his attention to a window. Seconds later, a flash of lightning lit up the outside. A burst of thunder rolled soon after, shaking floor of the restaurant slightly with the raw force of its power.

Yusuke groaned, "Aww, I'm gonna hafta walk home in this mess?" he asked himself as the sound of rain began in earnest on the top of the roof. It pittered and pattered and rolled down windows, falling through one very annoying crack in the ceiling (right on Yusuke's head).

Kurama ignored the detective as he felt a strong power as he had never felt before heading towards the building from the street. The power had been the reason he had looked up when he did, not the tempestuous storm outside. The door to the restaurant swung open and the waitress led the new customer to the other room. Yusuke looked up at the deep brown eyes that lit with every flash of lightning with terror.

It was Kagome: she was drenched from head to toe and furious at the sight of her friend. One look in her angry eyes caused Yusuke to try to duck under the table, but it was no use.

The miko growled, "Yusu----keeeee..." as another flash of lightning lit up behind her and made her ever the more intimidating. The detective gulped.

END CHAPTER

Ooh, cliffie, dotcha like it? Kinda short, yes, but I have the (skeleton) outline for the next planned out. And yes, I will explain then why she is so mad. Look over her internal musings and think of the position that she runs into him in the chapter.

I personally hated this chapter. Nothing really happened and it seemed to be a lot of filler. Lots of important filler, but filler nonetheless. Read my author's notes if you dare. I have more unpublished ones as well if people have questions. (I like to have prewritten responses so that if there is a question, I don't have to make stuff up off the top of my head, as well as since it allows me to plan further in advance without revealing everything to the audience).

(1)That is my attempt at doing a gangsta-type dialect. Read it as you wish. I just felt that if I had written it in Standard English ("Dude, what are you doing behind the trashcan? Are you one of those dumpster-divers that gets their kicks out of eating half-eaten food in order to save the world or something strange like that? That is disgusting, man..."), then it would be no where near as convincing as if I wrote in the dialect.

There are some significant differences between this dialect and what I used for Yusuke (when he's joking/casual, because his serious one is closer to Standard English). Yusuke's informal dialect merely drops parts of words and combines common words ("whatcha" and "I'da" for "what are you" and "I would have"). This gangsta dialect (which will probably be used for some future character) replaces many t's with d's, uses more crude language, replaces er's with a's, and altogether makes less grammatical sense.

(2) Think Ruroni Kenshin

(3) Something that always bugs me (at least of late, I've probably done this mistake before) is when people talk about Koenma around other people, thinking that they won't understand. Ko-enma means "Son of Enma" (and Enma is kinda a known figure). Therefore, mentioning his name in conversation in public seems as though it would be like saying "Oh yeah, Jesus/Muhammad/(insert any well known prophet/god here) said to...." rather than "The Boss said to...". The first is kinda obvious who you are talking about. The second is better for dealing with the idea of secrecy.

(4) I had to do it (Ruroni Kenshin). They had to have beef stew. My muse wouldn't have it any other way.

(5) Lots of author's notes today, ne? This should be the last one and is more or less an explanation... SPOILER: the theory is wrong, and here's why: the Jewel's power was able to completely rewrite everything on earth and most things in spirit world (save the written documents, and even those have intentional holes due to anything that was written in Human World would have been affected, meaning that any case-studies done by the higher-ups there are lost, which is why personal data seems to be missing but other stuff is not and makes it seem like they were trying to cover up the information). The only ones who are allowed to know (for now, I may add people through -other means-) are Kagome and Sesshoumaru. That's it. No spirits from beyond discussing their role in the thing, nothing. Only those connected intimately to the Shikon Jewel (which no longer exists, mind you) know. The only other people close enough would be Kikyo and Naraku, who are both out of the picture. Maybe Midoriko will make an appearance, but that would be quite a bit later. Once the secrecy of this story is dealt with, I will have to come up with some sort of lasting plot.


	4. Chapter 4

Last time:

It was Kagome: she was drenched from head to toe and furious at the sight of her friend. One look in her angry eyes caused Yusuke to try to duck under the table, but it was no use.

The miko growled, "Yusu----keeeee..." as another flash of lightning lit up behind her and made her ever the more intimidating. The detective gulped.

Chapter 4:

Kagome's day had been more or less normal after she had seen him duck behind that trashcan. She had gone to the rest of her classes, eaten a semi-worthwhile lunch in the school cafeteria, and otherwise just tried to forget about the boy.

When she started her trek towards her house to end the day, she noticed that the sky was turning black with the onset of a thunderstorm. Not wanting to be drenched, she flagged down a taxi. The seats smelled of old cigarette smoke and vodka, but her desire to remain dry was more important to her than her comfort.

"Where're ya headed?" asked the driver as she tried to make herself comfortable on the filthy back seat, which was covered with crumbs from some unknown chip product and something sticky that she really did not want to know about. She looked up at him, his toothless smile grinning back at her genuinely. Her days in the Feudal Era had taught her that just because someone looked ugly or crazy did not mean that they really were. His aura was fine, so she smiled back with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

"The Higurashi shrine, please, sir," she requested as the driver accelerated far too quickly to be safe. She would have to forget what she had thought about appearances being deceiving: apparently this time they were right on target.

To get her attention off of the jerks and twists of the cab, she looked out the window. The storm began slowly with a few drops landing almost noiselessly against the roof of the cab. It slowly gained more and more energy as the seconds passed.

While looking at the passing people without umbrellas running into buildings, she started thinking to herself. She wasn't a freak, was she? Yusuke seemed to think so. Why would he ignore her like that? Why is it that no one in this era understood her?...

As the taxi driver took a sharp turn, causing her to fall over herself in the backseat, a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder boomed in the background. After re-orientating herself, she felt the energy in the vicinity. She made a split-second decision to stop the cab and approach the boy. After paying the driver and thanking him graciously for driving her, she stood out in the now-pouring rain and walked towards the building.

Then she sensed it: another unfamiliar demonic presence. Her curiosity of her friend and his actions shifted to anger as she realized the implications. So, Yusuke was afraid to talk face-to-face with a miko, yet he had no problems being buddy-buddy with someone very obviously demon possessed. Her energy flared as she entered the restaurant, the thunder and lightning behind her acting as a perfect backdrop for her attitude. A waitress took her into the room where her traitorous friend and demon were eating their dinner.

She noticed her friend ducking under the table at her entrance, but it was too late: she had seen him and was quite furious. She growled "Yusu----keeeee..." causing the detective to swallow in nervousness and try to make himself seem as small as possible. However, the low tables were unable to cover his mass, so he merely sat crunched in fetal position as if that would help hide him from the wrath of an angry woman.

"Hey, Ducky… I mean, Kagome! How're you? Umm… well, what're you doin' here? It's a small world after all, right?" Yusuke blabbered as he looked up, still trying to crunch the rest of his body as low as possible.

"So, this is where you were hiding from me," she whispered, almost drowned out from the sounds of the storm outside, "I thought we were friends."

"Oh, we are!" Yusuke exclaimed, "Whaddaya mean by me hidin'? I ain't hiding!" He sat up and tried to look casual.

She was unimpressed with his lie as he continued to flounder for an explanation, "Well, ya see Ducky…. I mean Kagome! Yes, Kagome's your name, and you are not a duck…. Well, I was just about to go to your house and then I saw Kur---I mean Shuichi here and I just had to, ya know, talk to him since I haven't seen him in a while, and, ya know, we got to talkin' and, well, where did that time go? Hehe," Yusuke said with a nervous laugh. Kurama groaned at the stupidity. Kagome's anger had started to transform into annoyance at his obvious deception.

The apparent fear in the boy's explanation gave Kurama all of the indications he needed that this Kagome was the girl Koenma wanted to question. Interesting, he thought as he watched her, she really can be quite the intimidating person. Kurama felt her aura which filled and almost suffocated the room. He noted that she was obviously untrained: her power was heightened with the level of her emotions, which it should not be if she had received proper training.

Kagome opened her mouth to respond to Yusuke's explanation when the otherwise silent waitress asked Kagome if she could get her anything. The fire in Kagome's eyes intensified as she looked down at the other girl, commenting harshly that she was fine, that everything was under control, and she had to have a conversation with the two boys. The waitress scurried off to the kitchen to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Kagome looked at her friend in the eyes and asked, calmly at first but picking up intensity as she continued to speak, "When were you going to tell me that you were discriminatory against mikos? If you had at least told me, then maybe we could have come to an agreement. I can't believe you –actually- acted as though you were my FRIEND!" She screamed as her miko energy flared in a blinding light, overcoming the power of the lightning strikes outside the window.

Kurama looked at the screaming girl and started speaking in his cool cadence, "While I am truly sorry that there are problems, I am curious as to what exactly you are angry about. Yusuke and I work together, you see, and…"

Kagome cut him off, though with less fire than before, "Shut UP, demon. This does not concern you in the least. Go away before I purify you. Please" The last word said quietly, as if she were about to break down into tears.

All the boys could think was 'Oh great, girls and their emotions…'

"Kags, just let him speak, k?" Yusuke asked, trying to soothe the emotional girl. Her eyes narrowed and she nodded, adding that he had two minutes.

Kurama took a breath, looked around the restaurant (they were luckily there were no other patrons there), and began. "As I was saying, we work together…"

"As these so-called 'Spirit Detectives' that Yusuke mentioned?" she asked, much calmer now and hinting at a smile at the strange name for demon hunters.

"Yea, Kagome," Yusuke said as he remembered the conversation, "This is Kurama, who I mentioned before! His human name is Shuichi and…" (1)

Kagome ignored him and asked Kurama to keep talking. "Yes, we are Spirit Detectives. I do not know what Yusuke has told you, but our Boss has us on a mission at the moment that we were in the middle of discussing. It was nothing of major importance, really, and Yusuke was not hiding with me to avoid you. Actually, he just happened to sense me while I was enjoying my meal and decided to make small-talk about this mission. However, I am curious about one thing: why the immense anger that I felt from you as you entered?"

Kagome blushed a little bit, as she had now completely calmed down by his words (2). "I thought he was ignoring me due to having a hatred of priestesses, and that he was just pretending to be my friend after finding that out to make me feel better before he could run away. Besides," she turned her gaze towards the Detective and growled slightly, "I found him hiding from me behind a trashcan."

Yusuke squeaked, "You mean you saw me?"

"Saw you? I used the force of my energy to make those people drop their food on you. You can't complain though: free food and all."

Yusuke started muttering about how being pelted with half-drunken shakes and half-eaten fries did not constitute 'free food'.

"So, you don't hate me because of what I am?" she asked her friend, who immediately stopped his mutterings and looked up in shock.

"Ducky, I could never hate you!" he exclaimed loudly, "Well, unless you killed one of my friends or something… you aren't plannin' on doin' that, are ya? 'Cause if you are, I'm gonna have to take you down."

She laughed at his joke and explained that she would never hurt one of his friends unless he was trying to hurt her first. She turned to Kurama to offer her apologies for her behavior.

He put up a hand to stop her, "It is quite alright, Miss… Kagome was it?" he asked as she nodded, "You meant no harm by it, and your concern was legitimate."

Yusuke watched the two before thinking back to what they had been discussing before Kagome's appearance, "So… Kurama, what were we talking 'bout again?"

The fox looked a little apprehensive about answering in front of Kagome but decided to do so anyway. If the girl recognized the name, that might provide even more insight into the case, and it may help bring her involvement into the light. It may, however, backfire and harm the two's friendship more, but if their quick retribution was anything to go by, that should blow over quite quickly. "You had just asked about Lord Sesshoumaru's involvement with the case."

Kagome froze where she stood and stared off at something unseen and far away as she remembered exactly who Lord Sesshoumaru had been and her dealings with him. What kind of mess had the one-armed lord ***gotten himself involved with now?

"Oh yeah," Yusuke said as he tried to remember the gist of the conversation before that. Drawing a blank, he decided just to repeat the question, "So, how IS he involved with this?"

Kurama noticed Kagome's shocked expression and decided not to answer the boy. "Are you ok?" he asked her, drawing her from her thoughts which raced around her mind quicker than she could form coherent connections between them. Is he?…missing arm....alive still? Where… what about lands?...brother…. Inuyasha…..Rin, what happened? (3)

She jerked her head up and stated too quickly that she was fine and just was thinking about something.

Yusuke looked at her with concern, "Had you heard of this Sesshoumaru before in your training or something?" he asked as he tried to comprehend how she would know him. The concept of her being part of the 500 year time gap seemed to be forgotten.

"Or something," she said quickly after cringing at the way Yusuke said 'this Sesshoumaru', "What is it about him that would connect to your mission?" After seeing the two of them exchange a look, she continued, "I swear that I will not tell people anything you don't want me to."

Kurama thought for a second before answering Yusuke's question, "Lord Sesshoumaru was questioned by Koenma for his involvement with the destruction of Naraku."

Kagome almost screamed at him, but reined it into just a loud response, "Sesshoumaru was not the one responsible for Naraku's death: Inuyasha was!" (4)

"Who is this Inuyasha fellow?" asked Yusuke, confused.

"Sesshoumaru's younger brother, a hanyou," Kurama supplied, "Though that is quite impossible. Inuyasha was said to have been incapacitated for quite some time then killed at the hands of his brother before Sesshoumaru took out Naraku…"

Kagome's calm demeanor faded into anger again, but she tried desperately to hold onto her emotions long enough to ask, "What are you talking about? Inuyasha worked to find and kill Naraku for revenge of what he did to his lover, Kikyo, and though Sesshoumaru was present at the last battle, it was Inuyasha's use of the Tetsusaiga's backlash wave combined with holy energy that finally took out the evil demon."

Kurama looked genuinely confused at her words, as he had heard that Sesshoumaru had killed his brother before he even knew that he had a sword in the first place. This information proved several things, such as the girl's involvement in the case, as well as her lack of knowledge as to what happened.

"Demon," she asked Kurama, still holding a little spite for his previous words, "Could you tell me where I could meet with Sesshoumaru? If it is possible, I would like to have a few words with him."

Kurama thought about that for a few seconds, weighing the good that would do for the case against the danger of allowing the 'target' to know of what they were looking into. Deciding that it was more important to solve the case than try to keep her out of it, he agreed, on the condition that she would meet with Koenma before meeting with Sesshoumaru.

"That sounds fine," she said after he mentioned the meeting with his boss, "I wanted to meet his mysterious boss anyway and give him a piece of my mind." She forced herself to sound annoyed, causing Yusuke to howl in laughter. Kurama chuckled and opened a portal to Spirit World, leading the other two in.

The rip between the two dimensions glowed yellow and purple and crackled with power as Kurama allowed Yusuke to go first, so that Kagome would not think it a trap. Yusuke looked apprehensive, as he always did, when he entered, knowing that he was about to feel some major whiplash when he arrived at his destination. Kagome merely walked through, trusting her friend enough to not hurt her. Kurama went through last, closing the portal as he exited.

As the last bit of hair from Kurama's head disappeared into the glowing hole in the room, the waitress came out of the kitchen to see what all of the commotion was about, only to find that they had left without paying their bill. She sighed and cleaned up their dishes, making a mental note to ask for payment next she saw them: they were very difficult to miss, especially the redhead.

END CHAPTER

I liked this one a little better than the previous chapter, though the meeting with Sesshoumaru will be a lot better than this... I kept rewriting the first part, and wrote the end of the chapter at least three times (the first time I just left it at Kagome asking to see Sesshoumaru, then I added two sentences of how Kurama opened a portal and they entered, then I had to make it somewhat realistic and describe it... Does Kurama even have the ability to open portals between Human World and Spirit World? I know he can from Human World and Demon World... oh well. It would have been too cumbersome to bring Botan into this, as she would have immediately contacted Koenma, and I want it to be a surprise visit.)

1) This was implied by the conversations that they had in chapter 2. They did not discuss much of importance, other than "who these 'closer to home' friends that he had mentioned on the phone were and how they were doing"

2) This seems a little bit of a jump, unless you remember how she would change dramatically with Inuyasha. Seriously, that girl wears her emotions on her sleeve, and since I did not want to make her a Mary-Sue (even though she is canon and thus could get away with it), I decided to play with her unpredictability and make her have mood swings like the stereotypical pregnant lady. She will develop as time passes, but notice: she is very much angry that people are 1) keeping secrets from her, and 2) avoiding her for no apparent reason. I would be angry, too, if I saw my friend hiding from me.

Example:

Kagome is calm. Inuyasha does something stupid. Kagome looks at him, acts sweet, then starts yelling SIT, SIT…!!! a million times until he is in a crater, before walking away with a smile on her face. Very unpredictable.

3) Not meant to be coherent.

4) Kagome does not know that what she remembers happening in the past was rewritten, too. She thinks that only the future after that was. (Remember, she does not have higher knowledge about certain things, and quite frankly she is not known to be the smartest person ever.) She is only going on what she knows, which is a limited perspective of the world

***This theory of hers explains why she thought that he had only one arm, as well, though in this reality he has two.


End file.
